PAC to mull new mechanism

ISLAMABAD - Following the letter of Cabinet Division, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is likely to deliberate the issue of evolving mechanism for settling audit objections of the previous years of the devolved ministries in the coming week. The issue of previous years audit objections will be taken up with Cabinet Division Secretary Nargis Sethi to evolve appropriate mechanism in the coming week, Cabinet Division sources told The Nation. It may be mentioned here that sensing the importance of technical issues, it is also being feared that national kitty can bear billions of rupees loss if it is not timely resolved. Facing such technical issue, the PAC had already deferred a scheduled implementation committee meeting in which audit objections of ministry of culture for the years 1996-97, 1999-2000, 2000-01, 2005-06, 2008-09 were to be discussed. The meeting was deferred as no responsible officer of recently devolved ministry was present in the meeting. Although other problems are being resolved which turned up after the devolution of federal ministries, sources said, yet the issue of audit objections are still to be addressed by the 18th Amendment Implementation Commission. It was yet to finalise that in future how to deal with the audit objections of the devolved ministries of population welfare, education, social welfare, special education, tourism, livestock and dairy development, youth affairs, local government and rural development, special initiatives, and Zakat and Ushr. It was also learnt that provincial government departments nod to inherit the audit objections of federal ministries could prove as much difficult task for the federal government. Some senior officials of the Cabinet Division requesting anonymity have also termed it as opening of new Pandoras box, as they feared that provincial government might refuse to inherit objections of the federal ministries. They further argued that as per rules, provincial government and attached departments were only accountable by the respective provincial governments. When contacted, Convenor Monitoring and Implementation Committee of PAC said that this technical issue would be deliberated in the coming week. This is a big matter that needs to be addressed as soon as possible, she said, adding that Chairman PAC Ch Nisar, Cabinet Division Secretary Nargis Sethi and other concerned departments officials would deliberate it soon. It would not be out of place to mention here that PAC Secretariat had received a letter of Secretary Cabinet Division around a week ago in which she stated that the mechanism was being evolved in consultation with Chairman 18th Amendment Implementation Commission Senator Raza Rabbani. It was also being assumed that in the absence of concerned department officials PAC might call senior officials of the subsidiaries of the devolved ministries. Another option to remove all audit objections of previous years of devolved ministries might be left for the government if the technical issue could not be resolved before June 30, the official sources feared.